Archives by: Gary Hoag

“A common practice during Lent is to give up something (fast) in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Some people will also take on new activities during this period such as visiting shut-ins, assisting the needy, increased prayer time, etc. The key is to refrain or remain in the activities described above through the end of the Lent season and beyond.”

Samuel Main in Strengthening Your Good Heart, 426.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–along with persecutions–and in the age to come eternal life. Mark 10:29-30

“Jesus gave up home and family and possessions in order to bring us the Good News of God’s love. We are called to proclaim God’s love by freely sharing what God has freely given us. This generosity is a sacrifice to the Lord and he will always respond with even greater generosity to us. Jesus proclaims that our ability to receive is determined by our willingness to give.”

Fr. Bill Adams in The Redemptorists of the Denver Province, daily spiritual reflection email on 1 March 2011.

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said. “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD. 2 Kings 4:42-44

“God uses Elijah to provide for faithful persons who have come to the end of their resources. Here the prophet causes twenty loaves of bread to be enough to feed one hundred people…This miracle is paralleled in the New Testament by Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes. Such literary features as the questioning of whether there is enough bread to feed so many, the feeding of a large group, and the fact that there is “some left over” appear in Matt 14:13–21; Mark 6:30–42; 8:1–21; Luke 9:13–17; and John 6:12–13…Elisha worked miracles that were signs of God’s kingdom breaking into history, and both were ignored by all but a remnant of Israel. Still, the remnant did emerge, so their work was not totally in vain.”

Paul R. House The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2001) vol. 8, 268.

“People must not only hear about the kingdom of God, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nonetheless.”

Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), Indian Christian activist in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, 170.

“Bernard’s faith in God found an expression in connection with this, which was lovingly remembered.

He bade a monk go on the market-day and buy some salt, at a village not distant, admitting at the same time that he had no money with which to pay for it.

To the monk’s remonstrance that if he went empty-handed he should return in like condition the abbot replied, “Be not afraid; He who has the treasure will be with thee and will supply the things for which I send.”

When the incredulous monk returned, having obtained in an unforeseen way much more than he had gone for, Bernard only said to him:

“I tell thee, my son, that nothing is so necessary to a Christian man as faith. Have faith and it will be well with thee all the days of thy life.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in Bernard of Clairvaux: The Times, The Man, and His Work, ed. by Richard Salter Storrs (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1893) 227. Cf. Vita, iv. lib. ii. coll. 2498-2499.

“Do not appear before the Lord emptyhanded, for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the commandment. The offering of the righteous enriches the altar, and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High. The sacrifice of the righteous is acceptable, and it will never be forgotten. Be generous when you worship the Lord.”

Sirach (2nd Century BC) also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira 35:6-10.

“Tell me then, how did you come by your wealth? Did you receive from someone? Where did you get it from? From his grandfather, you say, or from his father. Are you able to show, as you go back through the generations, that it was justly acquired? It cannot have been. No, the beginning and root of wealth must lie in injustice of some sort. And why? Because in the beginning, God did not create one person wealthy and another to go wanting; nor did he at some point later in time, reveal great heaps of gold to one person and cheat another searcher. He gave one and the same earth to all alike. And inasmuch as the earth is a common possession, how is it that you have acres and acres of land, while your neighbor has not the tiniest fraction of the earth? It is an inheritance from my father, you say. And from whom did it come to him? From his ancestors, you say. Yet you must go back and search out the origin of your claim. Jacob grew wealthy, but it came as what he earned from his own toil. Still, I will not quibble too much over details. I grant you that your wealth may have been gathered honestly and without any taint of larceny–that the gold he had somehow just gushed up out of the earth. What of it? Is wealth something good? Not at all. Still, he argues, it is not something evil. No, it is not something evil–so long as it is not hoarded and shared out with those in need. Unshared, wealth becomes something evil, a trap. But not doing a good work, he goes on, is not tantamount to doing an evil one or being an evil person. True enough, but isn’t the fact that you claim sole ownership of what belongs to the Lord, of what is common property, something evil? Or do you deny that the Lord’s is the earth and its fullness? And so, if whatever we have belongs to our one common Lord, it belongs also to those who are his servants along with us. Whatever belongs to the Lord belongs equally to all. Isn’t this the arrangement established in great households, where all get an equal share of food since it comes from the store of their master? The master’s house is available to all. Whatever kings own–cities, marketplaces, public walks–is common property, shared equally by all. Now look at God’s loving plan. In order that they might put humankind to shame, he created certain things as common property–the sun, the air, the earth and water, the sky, the sea, light and the stars–and shares them out equally as with members of a single family. He has fashioned us all with the same eyes and body and soul, the same equipment in all respects, all things that come from the earth, all human beings from a single parent and all of us in one dwelling place. But none of these shames us. Other things as well he made common property–baths, cities, marketplaces, walkways. And notice that no one argues over what belongs to all in common; all is peaceful. Strife comes on the scene only when someone tries to gain possession of something and make it his own. It is as if human nature itself grows wroth when, in spite of God’s uniting us in every way, we are bent on dividing and standing apart by owning things and using phrases like “This belongs to me” or “That is yours”–chilling words indeed. This is the occasion of quarreling and turmoil; without this sort of conduct there can be no quarrel and no contention. It is rather the state of common property that is our inheritance which is more in keeping with our nature. Why do we never argue over who owns the market-place? Is it not because it belongs to all alike? It is rather over houses and possessions that we see each other always at each other’s throats. Whatever is necessary for life is given to all alike; yet even in the smallest matters we cannot seem to keep things in common to all. God has made these great gifts available to all in common so that we might learn to share lesser things. Nevertheless, we have not learned this lesson. To return to my earlier questions: how can a rich person be a good person? He is a good person when he shares his wealth; by no longer being wealthy he becomes good–by giving his wealth to others. As long as he hoards it for himself he is not good.”

John Chrysostom (c. 349-407) Archbishop of Constantinople in Sermon 12.4 in Ep I ad Tim.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6

“Each of you has his own endowment from God, one to live in this way, another in that. It is an impertinence, then, to try to find out why St. Paul was not given St. Peter’s grace, or St. Peter given Paul’s. There is only one answer to such questions: the Church is a garden patterned with countless flowers, so there must be a variety of sizes, colors, scents–of perfections, after all. Each has its own value, its charm, its joy; while the whole vast cluster of these variations makes for beauty in its most graceful form.”

Francis de Sales (1567-1622) French Bishop and Author on topics of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, 160.

“There is not an act of kindness or generosity, not an act of sacrifice done, or a word of peace and gentleness spoke, not a child’s prayer uttered, that does not sing hymns to God before His throne, and in the eyes of men, and before their faces.”

Thomas Merton in The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Image Books, 1970) 162.

“In Matthew, Jesus–the Way, the Truth and the Life–says, “I tell you solemnly, insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” (25:40, italics mine).

Placing absolute trust in this living Word, St. Cuthbert, having just received a beautiful horse from the king because the former is limping and aging, rides down the road, sees a ragged beggar, and gives him the horse. Word reaches the king. He is angry.

At their next meeting the king says to Cuthbert, “I gave you a magnificent horse and you squandered it on a worthless beggar. I should have given you a sorry old mare.”

“Ah, my beloved king,” says Cuthbert, “you value the son of a thoroughbred more than you value the son of God.”

St. Cuthbert (c. 634-687) monk, bishop and hermit associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne, as retold in Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning (New York: HarperCollins, 2000) 167-168.